296 CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE HERRING-FISHERY, 



The fishing of the herrings on the East Coast was much 

 less than usual ; and while there were 154,962 barrels of 

 herrings imported at Stettin in 1855, the quantity im- 

 ported there was in 1856 only 99,366 barrels. The prices, 

 however, were high, and ranged from 30s. to 39s. per 

 barrel. 



In the year 1856, the British Fishery Society, resolving 

 to take immediate steps to improve the harbour of Wick, 

 in consequence of the numerous lives which had been lost 

 at various times from the fishermen being unable to get 

 into the harbour, applied for and obtained an Act of Par- 

 liament, authorising them to extend the harbour, and 

 employed Messrs Stevenson, the eminent engineers, to 

 furnish a plan, which was approved of by the Society ; but 

 for some reason it was objected to by the Lords of the 

 Admiralty, and the work was not proceeded with, although 

 it was obvious that such a harbour is of great national 

 importance. 



In the same year 1856, one of the inspecting commis- 

 sioners of the Irish Fisheries, J. Eedmond Barry, Esq., 

 before referred to, made a tour on the Scottish coasts, 

 between the 22d August and 13th September, and his 

 evidence as to the system on the said coasts is so extremely 

 interesting, as to justify us in extracting what follows as 

 more immediately connected with the herring-fishery : — 



" Having learned at the Ofiice of Fisheries (at Edin- 

 burgh) that communications had been received from 

 Dunbar, near the entrance of the Forth, announcing that 

 a prosperous herring-fishery was then going on, and that 

 some complaints had been made of outrages committed 

 on the nets and persons of some Irish fishers, I lost no 

 time in going there, on the 30th August ; and to my 

 great surprise and gratification, I found that not less 



